Curtis M. Wong, 10/17/12

Associate Editor, HuffPost Gay Voices

Patti Issues is not just 90 minutes of gay diva worship, and Rimalower has wisely given the show a much-needed emotional core by balancing out the LuPone anecdotes with a compelling exploration of his troubled relationship with his father, who came out when Ben was 8.

Christina Patterson, 10/17/12

Writer and columnist, 'The Independent'

If he really believed it all at the time he was drinking a bottle of whiskey a day, and sleeping with every groupie who threw herself at him, he must surely have thought he was in trouble? "Oh, absolutely," says Cooper again.

Bharat Tandon, 10/17/12

Writer, Editor

Choosing images for the novel also served to sharpen my awareness of the larger social world that Emma's glances and feints conjure up. The following images show some of the aspects of Emma Woodhouse's world that I most wanted others to share.

Patricia Leigh Brown, 10/16/12

Writer

Inviting your 18-year-old son to follow his muse on a road trip -- even though he refuses to let you friend him on Facebook -- is to enter uncharted emotional terrain.

Carla Escoda, 10/16/12

Former dancer, research scientist & investment banker turned ballet teacher and arts blogger

If there were any purists muttering to themselves during Act IV at Thursday night's performance of Swan Lake by the Mariinsky Ballet, they were lost amid the hootin' and hollerin'.

Colin Darke, 10/17/12

Artist, Writer, and Attorney

In the Internet age, everyone is a critic -- often an unhinged critic who hides in the "comment" sections of an article. With fine art, it is easy to say that art critics do not count for much, because fine art is subjective by its nature, so the only opinion that really counts is your own.

Johnny Nevin, 10/17/12

Music and Dance writer, 4dancers.org

As Scott Speck describes the complex process of preparing for such a performance, it becomes more and more clear that the luxurious and powerful sound of a symphony orchestra is only the beginning of the story.

Nora Younkin, 10/16/12

Dance Artist

I don't believe the arts can, or should, stand on their own. Even more worrisome than Romney's statements themselves is the ideology from which they spring up. The arts are not nonpartisan.

George Heymont, 10/17/12

San Francisco-based arts critic

Whether sitting on Hamlet's face or waving their grotesque cloth phalluses at the audience, nothing is too rude or scatological for these two "anti-clowns." You Killed Hamlet is the kind of theatrical event which good friends tell each other "You just had to be there."

David Finkle, 10/17/12

Writer, Drama Critic

What is/are The Crazy Coqs? They is a new cabaret room, and in these parlous times when it's more usually reported that an intimate boite is shuttering, the fact that one has opened is a cause for celebration.

David Kiley, 10/16/12

Editor-in-Chief, AOL Autos

The Barber of Seville is a corker of an opera. Even non-opera fans can get their heads and laughter around it, the story and familiar melodies and arias having become so iconic.

Tida Tippapart, 10/16/12

Creative Producer and Artist

The politics of the other in Out Twenty Four assumes many skins and voices through the work selected for the one night event.

Bess Rowen, 10/16/12

Ph.D Student, Department of Theatre, CUNY, the Graduate Center

This adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath brings the piece into direct conversation with our times in a way that allows the novel to live and breathe in a theatre as opposed to being studied as an artifact from another time.

Ioannis Pappos, 10/16/12

Writer, management consultant and fisherman

For no matter what type of regulation is introduced, risk will never be completely eliminated. The question is, how should we do this?

Dan Lybarger, 10/16/12

Kansas City-based freelance writer and critic

Stephen Tobolowsky is probably a little too good at acting. Despite his above average height, his recognizable features and his slight Texas drawl (he's a Dallas native), the 61-year-old is probably better known for the names of the characters he's played.

Lew Whittington, 10/16/12

artswriter

The artistic excellence all around was much appreciated by this audience, who stayed as the credits rolled, lustily applauding Bernstein, Sondheim, Robbins, and of course, the luminous Natalie Wood.

Ashley Jude Collie, 10/16/12

Journalist/Author